Cooper pleased as Astros win spring opener

With the bases loaded and the go-ahead run at the plate in the ninth, righthander Danny Graves caught Javier Valentin’s line drive to seal the Astros’ 6-3 victory over the Washington Nationals on a day Mike Hampton and Russ Ortiz each tossed two scoreless innings.

Reggie Abercrombie’s two-run double sparked a three-run seventh for the Astros to pull away in their Grapefruit League opener before a crowd of 1,973 at Osceola County Stadium.

The Astros held a shutout until the Nationals scored an unearned run against Wesley Wright in the eighth. Chris Johnson’s home run gave the Astros a 6-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth. Then the Nationals threatened against Graves in the ninth.

Graves was the only Astro to give up earned runs. Geoff Geary, Tim Byrdak and Sammy Gervacio each added a scoreless inning. Drew Sutton was 2-for-2 with two runs.

“I thought everybody really threw it overall really, really good for us,” Cecil Cooper said. “I was very impressed with our swings. Some of our swings were very good. Sutton was pretty impressive, and so was Johnson. They both hit the ball sharply twice. Reggie Abercrombie swung the bat well, Michael Bourn. I thought it was a pretty good.”

After a 15-minute delay caused by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s late arrival, Hampton hit Willie Harris to lead off. Then he walked Lastings Milledge and Ronnie Belliard to load the bases. He struck out Austin Kearns and induced a double play grounder to third from Jesus Flores to escape unscathed.

“My arm felt good,” Hampton said after throwing two hitless innings. “My body felt good. Obviously location wasn’t where it needs to be, but all in all I felt good out there. Pitches and location will come. I got through with no hits, no runs. It wasn’t pretty at times, but I got there.”

Cooper admitted that Crist’s tardiness may have hindered Hampton, who didn’t use it as an excuse for his command problems.

“I went out first and then they said, ‘well the governor or whatever is running late.’ So I came back in and waited around a little bit,” Hampton said. “It had nothing to do with the way I got off to a pretty slow start. I’m just trying to get comfortable with mechanics and everything.”

Either way, Cooper was pleased.

“Mike seemed to be just a little bit tentative early, missing the zone a little bit,” Cooper said. “But then after … the first three (guys) he started to pitch a little bit and was real sharp. Russ, I thought, threw the ball really well.”